Prior art plug connectors include a resin-molded handhold portion and a plug main body in which a portion thereof is projected from the handhold portion, the projected portion constituting a portion plugged into a mating connector.
The plug main body includes a housing, a plurality of terminals provided in the housing and connected to the cable, a housing cover covering at least a portion of the terminals and wires of the cable and a shield case for shielding the members. The plurality of terminals are fixed within a plurality, of grooves formed in the axial direction of the housing, and a cable is connected to the housing by soldering the wires to the terminals. The plug main body is formed by combining the housing cover and the shield case to the housing connected with the cable. The handhold portion is formed by overmolding the plug main body with a resin.
Although attachment of the housing cover to the housing is carried out by an engaging portion for engaging the two members, the engaging portion is formed in a width direction of the plug and therefore, the engaging portion constitutes a factor for increasing a width dimension. Furthermore, when the plug main body is overmolded, the resin can flow to the front end of the plug by way of the plurality of grooves of the housing fitted with the terminals. As a result, there is a concern of causing contact failure between the plug and the mating connector.
Although, the terminals may be embedded in the housing by insert molding or the grooves are closed by premolding as a countermeasure against leakage of the resin, these methods result in an increase in cost and/or the molding may become unstable.
Further, the cable cover is peeled off for soldering the core wires to the terminals. A knitted shield and a drain wire of the cable are turned back, and a copper foil tape (“copper foil portion”) is wrapped around the turned-back members. The cable is clamped to the connector such that the copper foil tape is not loosened. The clamping is carried out by, for example, a portion of the shield case in the form of enabling the clamping of the cable. Therefore, the corresponding portion of the shield case is referred to as clamp portion.
Generally, when the shield case is attached to the housing, after the housing cover is attached to the housing, the shield case is fitted to the housing from the front end portion side of the housing along the longitudinal direction of the shield case. The dimension of the maximum width portion of the housing cover is larger than that of the copper foil portion and the housing cover is situated at the front end side of the cable.
When the shield case is fitted to the housing, the width dimension of the portion of the shield case holding the housing cover is larger than the clamp portion clamping the copper foil portion. The clamp portion is located at the rear end side of the shield case comparing to the portion holding the housing cover. Also the clamp portion has the clamp pieces made in a U shape cross section opening upwardly.
In this case, as stated above, since the dimension of the width of the clamp portion is smaller than that of the width of the housing cover, when the shield case is attached to the housing from the direction of the rear end side of the shield case, since the clamp portion, especially clamp piece having the dimension which is smaller than that of the housing cover conflicts with the housing cover, it is difficult to attach the shield case to the housing easily.
Therefore, when the shield case is introduced into the housing, there is a concern that the front end of the clamp portion constitutes a hindrance to mating the housing to the shield case. Therefore, it becomes difficult to integrate the housing to the shield case.
In addition, conventionally, there is proposed a shield case comprising two parts or more as means for shielding the housing. That is, the shield case includes a housing shield portion to shield the housing and a cover shield portion to shield the housing cover. In this instance, increased time and labor are required for control and integration of the two shield parts.